In the third of our crew spotlights, Key Makeup and Hair Designer Sheldon Wade explains how he created authentic looks for Robbie’s family and other characters.

(During production of Better Man. Image: Sheldon Wade)

To start with, all I saw of the Robbie character on set was the actor (Jonno Davies) in the motion capture jumpsuit, so that side of it didn’t have any bearing on my creative process for the other characters.

(Actor Jonno Davies in motion capture suit. Image: Ben King)

I started off with how his dad Peter (Steve Pemberton) looked when Robbie was little–he had 70s hair, like a long page-boy and big sideburns, almost an Elvis look.

(Actor Steve Pemberton as Robbie’s dad. Image: Sheldon Wade)
(Showman look for Robbie’s dad. Image: Sheldon Wade)

Then it’s the next period, which is the eighties when he had a perm with a bit of a mullet.

Overall there were four looks for the dad that reflect his showmanship.

(Nightclub scene. Image: Ben King)

The different looks help establish the timeline from say when he’s in the club working as an MC to when he’s got shorter hair and some grey in it, and this also helps establish the big gaps in between seeing Robbie.

Crafting the look for Robbie’s beloved grandmother, Betty

The grandma (Alison Steadman) was a key figure in his life. I did research chatting to Robbie to find that she had a lot of time for him and it was important to reflect her softness.

(Alison Steadman as Betty, with young Robbie. Still from trailer/Paramount Pictures)

We made her look more consistent, because she’s an anchor for Robbie over the years.

She had a look from maybe the 1940s or 50s–the sort of person who’d go to the salon once a week.

(Traditional hairstyle for Robbie’s grandma. Image: Sheldon Wade)

She becomes unwell of course, so I had to reflect that too.

For most of the cast we didn’t apply a great deal of makeup. We saw their skin–the dark circles and the blemishes.

(Alison Steadman as Betty. Image: Ben King)

Creating wigs for so many characters

In my early conversation with Michael Gracey he wanted wigs. And he said to me: I just want the best wigs I’ve ever seen in a film.

The issue is to make a wig look natural. You need to get it made for the person, which was logistically hard because you’re talking about cast members coming from the UK.

(Hair and makeup for Take That member Howard Donald. Image: Sheldon Wade)
(Take That band members. Still from trailer/Paramount Pictures)
(Liam Head as Howard Donald. Image: Ben King)

They’re also extremely expensive, and it’s an incredible amount of work to prep when you’ve got multiple wigs.

People think of them as hair, but they don’t act like hair or respond in any way like that–you can’t use hair product, and you can’t blow dry them.

They have to be wet set, and then put into basically a big pie oven and sort of slow bake and dry for hours- old world techniques in a way. It’s quite bizarre.

Creating rock star looks from the era

There was so much to do every day and to prep for and a huge amount of research when you’re dealing with something that happened in real life.

With the girl group All Saints–there was a timeline and a lot different looks as they became more polished and refined.

And Robbie’s band Take That–I would have made close to 16 wigs in total for the members and different versions of that boy band look as they became more ‘rockstar-esque’.

(Reference image for hair and makeup design. Image: Sheldon Wade)
(Filming concert scenes for Better Man. Image: Ben King)

I was trying to get as close as possible to the real thing shown in video clips.

Filming at Docklands Studios with Director Michael Gracey

I love Docklands and because I’d previously been there doing Shantaram. I’ve spent a lot of time there and I just love the facilities.

I loved working with Michael Gracey. Even when we were shooting massive crowds of up to 20,000 people–he was very calm under enormous pressure.

(Filming concert scenes for Better Man. Image: Ben King)